LYNN — A game-of-the-week candidate lived up to expectations Friday night at Manning Field, where St. Mary’s hosted Shawsheen Valley Vocational Tech. The Rams, ranked No. 3 in Division 5, extended their unbeaten streak to 19 games with a 14-7 win against the No. 8 Spartans.
Shawsheen’s Adam Caruso connected with Nathan Smith for a 44-yard touchdown with 1:31 remaining in the fourth quarter.
But what seemed like a bump in the road turned into the end of the road. On the ensuing kickoff, St. Mary’s fumbled, allowing the visitors to run out the clock.
“That’s a good team and that could have been a good win on Senior Night,” said St. Mary’s coach Sean Driscoll. “You have to make the plays to finish the game. Whenever it seemed like we made a play and had momentum, we got a penalty – same as last week (loss to Bishop Feehan). We keep shooting ourselves in the foot. That’s the stuff that needs to be corrected down the stretch. We’re in Week 5. We need to be better.”
St. Mary’s struck first on its opening drive when quarterback Yaniel Belliard rushed for a 32-yard touchdown to give the Spartans an early 7-0 lead.
Nearly an immediate response, Shawsheen drove to St. Mary’s 4-yard line on its first possession, but the Spartans came up with a fourth-down stop.
In the second quarter, however, Shawsheen’s Cameron Banda broke through from 3 yards out. The extra point was blocked, leaving St. Mary’s a 7-6 advantage.
From there, both offenses struggled and the game remained a one-point contest until the late game-winner. Early in the second half, St. Mary’s defensive back Michael Sherman intercepted Caruso in the end zone to preserve the lead.
Driscoll praised his team’s defense, but said offensive mistakes proved costly.
“The effort, especially defensively, was great,” he said. “I think, offensively, we have the potential to be really good, but we can’t do dumb things. We need to stay on blocks and finish drives — it’s something we seem to struggle with this year. Defense isn’t our issue. It’s our offense. We seem to stutter when we get into situations where we need to execute – it’s a killer.”
The Spartans fell to 2-3, marking their third consecutive loss.
“I couldn’t tell you the last time we lost three in a row,” Driscoll said. “We just need to stick together and get back to it. We’ve got a game against (Bishop) Stang – a long ride against a good football team. We just need to stay together and go back to the drawing board tomorrow. Effort-wise, I’m pleased, but we need to clean up some stupid things, like penalties.”
St. Mary’s Tyren Hoeun finished the game with 101 yards rushing, including two runs of more than 30 yards.
The Spartans travel to face Bishop Stang next Friday at 7 p.m.
